While yes, this isn't something that Apple has just implemented, I think of it more in terms of people are finally learning how the technology they use everyday works. Yes this has been known by people who do deal with it more frequently such as those in forensics, but the knowledge of it wasn't as wide spread as it is now. Being able to see a map of everywhere you've been and knowing that the info to draw up that map is just sitting on your iPhone is a bit disturbing to some. And if this is something that some people doesn't agree with, hopefully this will help them be more mindful when it comes to purchasing technology.

It's been said that Google does the same thing with their Android devices (except it sends its data back to "home base" more often than iPhone/Apple). Their street view cars used to collect wifi data also, until it was found they were collecting more than just BSSID's. Anyway, so Google's giant database of BSSID's is searchable and Samy Kamkar made a nice little app to search it by BSSID, which will then map it along with all the data.

lorddicranius, i've got an android phone (samsung galaxy) and theres an opt in/opt out for them collecting anonymous data on certain apps. Doesn't mean they're not collecting stuff in the back ground but they do bring up messages on the screen when you use certain apps

It would not surprise me if they were all at it. I read somewhere that a Samsung laptop came with a key logger pre installed on it. I think companies do it so they can market stuff better but think people are stupid and wont find out.

I have owned every version of the iphone and have used and analyzed a majority of the android devices on the market (part of the job). Data collection is nothing new, first of all Google's android market place is rife with applications that have malicious backdoors installed in them. Not too long ago someone finally took a good hard look at the top 100 android applications and saw that over 20 of them contained code that would upload personal data to the application developer. Does it surprise me that there is gps tracking on my iphone? No. Do I care.... eh not really. My only concern would be how the logging is stored on my hard drive but since both it and my iphone backups are encrypted I could give a rip. EVERYTHING we interact with has a GPS in it now anyway.... BTW Lorddicranius is right this lill nugget of GPS tracking info has been around for a bit....

That open-source application maps the information that your iPhone is recording about your movements. It doesn't record anything itself, it only displays files that are already hidden on your computer.